Western Wildcats men in Europe along with Premiership action at home

Western Wildcats men head for Plzen in the Czech Republic on EuroHockey Indoor Club Trophy business on the back of retaining the indoor Scottish championship with a 5-2 win over Inverleith in last weekend`s final – so the confidence is high in the Auchenhowie camp, especially as they went through the entire campaign undefeated.

But the Wildcats are not yet experienced European indoor campaigners, so coach Vishal Marwaha is naturally a little guarded about pronouncing on targets.

Vishal commented: “This is the first time the team will have experienced a B division. We are looking forward to the challenge and will take one game at a time.”

Certainly their campaign last year in the third tier Challenge level proved successful with promotion achieved after a 9-3 win over Slovakian side Raca, Fraser Moran scoring five times in the game and 16 in the tournament over all. Wildcats won four of their five games, only losing narrowly to host side Lousada from Portugal who join the Scots in Plzen.

But this is now Europe`s second tier and the pool opposition consists of OKS-SHVSM Vinnitsa (Ukraine), Copenhagen (Denmark) and hosts TJ Plzen-Litice (Czech Republic) – and it is the top two who will advance to the promotion pool – that should be Wildcats` target.

On the opposition Vishal remarked: “We know little about the other teams. A few of the players are competing for their nations in the indoor euros, and we have played the Portuguese and Danes in previous club tournaments.”

Vishal confirmed that the only change from the squad that won the Scottish title is the absence of Jamie Golden who is unavailable, so it has been decided to bring in Craig Wallace as an additional keeper to the highly experienced Gavin Sommerville.

The outdoor Premierships reach their final scheduled set of fixtures this weekend, but while the men`s league is almost up to date the women`s have a few outstanding games still to be played.

In the men`s you might be forgiven for having lost track of what is happening – the last round of scheduled fixtures goes back to 11 November.

Now for the update. Undefeated Grange lead the division by six points from both Western Wildcats and Edinburgh University…and they have all played ten games. And all three are already in the top six for the next round of competition starting on 02 March.

Hillhead have done well recently, winning three of their last five games and moving up to fifth in the table, but to inflict Grange with their first reversal of the season is another matter.

Third placed Edinburgh University will hope to maintain their challenge with three points at bottom side Kelburne. And a win here would push them up to second as Western are otherwise engaged in Europe.

 

But the burning question is: who are the other three sides who will make up the top six?

There are endless permutations – hardly surprising as only three points separate the five competing sides. As already referred to, perhaps Hillhead have the biggest challenge playing Grange and could slip out of the top six depending on other results.

Clydesdale and Uddingston are seventh and eighth respectively – therefore not in the top six at the moment – but have assignments that could well yield three points and elevation. Clydesdale are away to a Dundee Wanderers side that have only won twice this season but all their seven points have been earned on Tayside.

Uddingston have an outside chance of a top six place at home to ESM, a win would take them to 15 points and they do have the best goal difference of the competing sides – that could be worth an extra point in the final analysis.

So on to the head to head between Watsonians and Inverleith – the winner here will be in the top six, the loser perhaps not.

After a bit of a frustrating start to the campaign Inverleith have risen to fourth on the back of three consecutive victories over Uddingston, Wanderers and Hillhead, and with set piece expert Charlie Jack on fire with nine goals in that run. In contrast Watsonians, who are a point behind, have had a mixed bag of results, but they did cause a surprise with a 3-1 win over Edinburgh University, their set piece expert Dan Coultas scoring all their goals.

This tussle could go right down to the wire!

The women`s programme is a bit truncated with neither leaders Watsonians nor Edinburgh University in action. So a great chance for second placed Wildcats to make up some ground at the top, but first they must take the three points at Grange.

That might not be so easy, Grange are having one of their better seasons with five wins out of nine outings and fifth place in the table. But the Auchenhowie side are also thriving on success this season with only one reversal in their eight games and they are only six points adrift of Watsonians at the top with a game less played.

GHK`s aspirations for a top six place could be decided this weekend, on Saturday they are at home to neighbours Hillhead and then take on Grange the day after. Six points here would go along way to securing the top six ticket, anything less would likely be more problematical.

Once they got going this season GHK have shown some promising form, scoring lots of goals against the lower sides with Lucy Williamson in fine scoring form and they only lost to Watsonians, Edinburgh University and Clydesdale Western by a single goal margin. It will be interesting to see if that form has survived the winter.

The foot of the table is beginning to liven up with Inverleith and Glasgow University both picking up points last weekend. The Glasgow students may be well placed with a home fixture against bottom side Gordonians. Three points here would push them up to ninth as Inverleith are not in action.

The other movement could be Hillhead who have quietly slipped back to eleventh, a win against neighbours GHK would alleviate some of their concerns.

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